ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has stopped PML-N leaders and members from making any adverse comment or showing reservations over any part of the Supreme Court’s verdict in the Panama Papers case.

“There are clear directives from the prime minister that no one will make any adverse comment, express criticism or show reservation or concerns over the judgment,” said Minister of State for Capital Administration and Development Tariq Fazal Chaudhry, who was among the cabinet members and parliamentarians who called on Mr Sharif on Friday.

He said the prime minister had already presented himself and his family before the apex court and now he wanted to see complete implementation of the verdict.

Minister rejects call for resignation due to dissenting notes

The minister rejected the opposition parties’ demand that the prime minister should resign, saying that never in history anyone had resigned on the basis of someone’s dissenting notes. He said the opposition’s demand for the resignation merely because two judges had written dissenting notes was unjustified.

Mr Chaudhry said the prime minister had decided to implement the verdict in letter and spirit and would participate in the proceedings of the joint investigation team (JIT) to be constituted in its light.

He claimed that the prime minister was fully “satisfied” with the decision. He said that instead of discussing the Panama Papers case, the prime minster had mostly kept inquiring from those who met him about the status of the work on various development schemes in their constituencies.

According to sources, a number of party office-bearers and parliamentarians visited the Prime Minister House a day after the announcement of the verdict and congratulated him.

Prominent among those who met the prime minister were MNAs Daniyal Aziz and Talal Chaudhry, Senator Saud Majeed and some MNAs and MPAs from Sahiwal, Layyah and other parts of Punjab.

The sources said that the prime minister also held an informal meeting with senior party leaders in the presence of legal experts to discuss the course of action in the light of the court’s verdict, which had called for setting up a JIT to investigate the money trail of the Sharif family members’ huge businesses and purchase of property abroad as revealed by the Panama Papers leaks last year. However, there was no official confirmation of any such meeting held at the PM House.

The sources quoted the prime minister as saying that he was ready to present himself for accountability and his government fully respected the court’s verdict. He said the people would reject the negative politics of his opponents.

When contacted, PML-N chairman Raja Zafarul Haq and information secretary Mushahidullah Khan denied having attended any meeting at the PM House on Friday as reported by a section of the media.

They said the prime minister had already held a consultative meeting on Thursday night where it had been decided that the government would fully implement the verdict.

The sources said that some members in the meeting expressed their reservations over certain remarks made by the judges in their over 500-page judgement, but the prime minister cautioned them against making such remarks on the media or in public.

Published in Dawn, April 22nd, 2017